Bonding

Your hedgehog will probably be calm when you pick it up to take it home. It might start to freak out a little when you’re driving home, and will probably be even more frantic when you put it in its new cage. This is completely normal, you are basically uprooting the hedgehog’s entire life and changing almost everything, it will probably be a little stressed about that. Once your hedgehog comes home and you put it in its new cage, it really best to leave it alone for the first day. This will give it an opportunity to explore its new environment and feel safe. Starting on the second day though, you should begin holding your baby every day. You should hold it for about 1 hour a day, but no less than 30 minutes per day. To help with bonding you can wear an old t-shirt around for a day and then put it in their hut with them. Since hedgehogs see their hut as a safe place, then when you put the t-shirt in, they will smell that smell whenever they feel safe and begin to associate your smell with that safe feeling. Try to get your hedgehog used to being petted on their face and belly, their most vulnerable areas.